Joshua Cho, the author of the popular healthcare book “Patient Revolution,” had his chiropractor license nullified after being convicted of insurance fraud and dishonesty in August 2018.

Physicians have criticized the book for inaccuracy and distorted information.

Recently, Korea Biomedical Review received an email from a nurse working in California who alleged that the Californian government revoked Cho’s chiropractor license in August last year. This paper confirmed the license nullification by checking with the Californian government.

Cho had been working as a chiropractor in Orange County, Calif. However, California Board of Chiropractic Examiners received a complaint in February 2018 which alleged that Cho was convicted of insurance fraud. In August, the board got rid of his license.

According to the board, Cho was convicted of a crime related to the duties of a chiropractor and insurance fraud. He was also convicted of “unprofessional conduct and commission of acts involving moral turpitude, dishonesty or corruption.” He knowingly made or signed a document related to the practice of chiropractic, which falsely represented the facts and participated in the act of fraud, the board said.

The informant said she has been interested in Joshua Cho since 2001 because she was wondering why a chiropractor was talking about medicine. “Usually DC (Doctor of Chiropractor) just do spinal adjustment in the U.S. Let me tell you, legally, DC is not a medical provider,” she wrote in the email.

However, Cho is still introduced as “a U.S. chiropractor,” giving speeches and interviews in Korea.

In March, seven months after he got his license revoked, he had an interview with the Yonhap News, the state-run wire news service provider, about how to become healthy based on his book.

Introduced as a chiropractor working in the U.S., Cho said during the interview, “If you eat well, you don’t need medicine. To overcome a disease, you have to change your lifestyle.”

Cho opened a YouTube channel, “Doctor Cho Radio, Food is Medicine,” in which he does not talk about chiropractic adjustment but other medical issues -- risk of cholesterol and considering statin’s side effects, low-carbon-high-fat recognition in the American Diabetes Association’s 2019 Guideline, and liver cleansing, detoxification, and detox practice.

In the channel, he introduces himself as a doctor, writer and a speaker.

In his book “Patient Revolution,” he introduced himself as a “doctor,” not a chiropractor, which could mislead readers as “medical doctor.”

On a video clip published on May 19, Cho said the stiffening of the body was a side effect of statin. “If you stop the medication, you will recover from the symptom. If your doctor tells you that you have less than 1 percent of myalgia side effect, the doctor is lying or deceived by a pharmaceutical company. Doctors who practice medicine for patients know the rate is much higher,” he said, claiming that high cholesterol does not have to mean that the patient has to take a statin.

“Did statin lower cholesterol and the risk of the heart attack or stroke? Statistics says no. When 100 patients take medicine, only one was able to prevent heart attack thanks to the medication,” he said.

People who saw his video said in the comments, “I will ask my doctor to take out statin in my prescription.”